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guessits_densie's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Alcohol, and Sexual content
nickoliver's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I’ve had this book borrowed from the library for a while, so it was really exciting to me that I finally picked it up! Especially considering I had the German translation, which on top of that had almost 400 pages.
I didn't know what to expect going into this book, because I'd never heard of it before. It was some random book I'd found at the library when I was in one of my rare "What if I tried reading books in German again?" phases, though I did know the author beforehand. And while there were certain things I didn't like, overall, it was a pleasant surprise!
The story had two timelines. In timeline one, the present, Peyton had very spontaneously decided to temporarily leave her life in England and fly to Canada. She’d dropped out of school, stole her dad’s credit card, and wanted to leave the uncertainty and sadness of her life behind. While in Canada, she met new people, ones that taught her what real friendship (and also romance) looked like.
In timeline two, the past, Peyton explained what exactly had happened to make her take that drastic step of literally fleeing halfway across the globe.
What surprised me the most was how little I disliked this way of storytelling. Usually, I don’t like it when books are split into present and past, because I always end up not caring much about the chapters set in the past and find myself wanting to skim-read. That desire was missing here. While it was very easy to figure out what exactly happened from a certain point on even before it was truly revealed, I still didn’t find the past chapters pointless. They added a depth to it that I think wouldn’t have been there quite as much if there’d only been a focus on the present, and made me a lot more understanding towards Peyton’s actions and decisions.
Peyton as a character wasn’t technically someone I cared about deeply, but I do think that our shared experiences as lonely, friendless teenagers resulted in me not being bothered by her actions as much as other people might be. Don’t get me wrong - she did a lot of things that made me roll my eyes, like fleeing to Canada in October without so much as a coat and then being surprised by it. She was also naive to a degree that should’ve been impossible with her past experience. But she was also incredibly, painfully relatable.
The discussions Barnard created about friendship and about how far people would go to have them, even if they had to completely lose themselves in the process, was my absolute favourite thing about this book. Basically, Peyton had gotten bullied relentlessly for years at her old school, so when she started over at a new one, she was determined to not be alone anymore and to find connections with her peers. She ended up befriending a group of people that wasn’t good for her and that she barely even liked half of the time - but she was so terrified of being alone and being a victim again that she ignored all the red flags and did things she wasn’t proud of.
The contemplation that Peyton had about friendships made me very emotional. I’ve never had friends, especially not ones that I’d trust and that I was close with, so the desperation and loneliness she felt hit me deep in my core. To be honest, it almost made me depressed, because it made me yearn for it so hard I wanted to cry . If I’d read this as a teen, I probably would’ve felt hopeful and maybe bittersweet about the future; but as an adult in their late twenties, that was impossible.
Regardless of those sad feelings it conjured up in me, I loved the way Barnard talked about Peyton’s desire to have friends - even if those friends weren’t good for her. That’s what I meant when I said that my experience with loneliness and lack of friends made me understand her better - because despite the fact that as an adult, it is very easy to say that she acted stupid and should’ve known better and questioned her friends more, I just know in my heart that I would’ve done the exact same thing as her if I’d been in her situation as a teenager. I would’ve immediately given my true self up if it meant I could have friends to hang out with.
Plot-wise, I do think that logic was thrown out the window at times. Realistically, Peyton probably wouldn’t have even been allowed to enter Canada, or get a room in a youth hostel without a parent. Admittedly, I wasn’t quite all too aware of that and have only learnt about it from other reviews - I’ve only gone to another country alone once in my life when I was underage, and nobody there even asked what my intentions were -, but now I can’t unsee it and it bothers me.
On top of that, Barnard barely acknowledged how much worse it could’ve gone for Peyton. A 17-year-old teenager, going to another country without so much as a plan, could’ve easily fallen into the wrong hands. That’s what I meant when I said Peyton was naive - she became friends with pretty much the first people she met in the hotel and didn’t even question their intentions. I know that the atmosphere in youth hostels is rather laid-back and friendships are forged more easily, but I would’ve appreciated an acknowledgement of the potential danger. Without that, a teenager might pick up this book and think this is the greatest idea ever, without thinking about the negatives.
To be honest, I feel like this book offers very differing reading experience depending on where in your life you are. As a teenager, it’s inspiring and might awaken wanderlust. As an adult, you are way more reserved - I actually found myself on Peyton’s mum’s side at times, which was a very odd feeling to be having.
The story was also a bit rushed. You didn’t really get to experience the road trip too much and see the characters become close to each other. Before you could even blink, everyone was friends and two weeks had passed. At most, Peyton would talk about the places they’d seen, but it was always a bit on the outside; you were told about their adventures more than you were shown them. It definitely could’ve benefited from slowing down and taking the time to actually have the reader join the trip.
That too-fast pace also made the side characters a bit underdeveloped, which was something about the novel I didn’t like. Peyton met six people in Canada that she went on a road trip with, and some of them were barely explored at all. Especially these two guys named Lars and Stefan felt more like they were just thrown in there to have more people; I didn’t even realise that they were a couple until I was quite some way into the story, and I am usually quite attuned to queerness. So when Peyton talked about how close she was to the others and how much these friendships meant to her, it didn’t feel authentic to me.
Personally, I also don’t think there should’ve been a romance, because it undermined the message of the book a bit. Because at the end of the story, Peyton was closest to her love interest Beasey, and she took it way harder to be leaving him behind than any of the other five, and that made it seem like friendship is way less important than romantic love. The impact of the story would’ve been much bigger if everything had stayed platonic.
It didn’t help that Beasey wasn’t an exception to the rule of underdevelopment. I never really understood why he and Peyton even fell in love with each other. At first, he didn’t even register as a potential love interest - partly because I didn’t go into this book expecting a romance, and partly because I thought for a while that he and Khalil , his best friend, were a couple (which made the fact that I didn’t recognise the actual queer couple kind of hilarious). Even later, when Peyton talked about how he was her best friend, insinuating that she was much closer to him than any of the others, I didn’t understand where that came from. Because while he might have been mentioned more often than the others, I didn’t see the deeper friendship/budding romance that he had with Peyton.
It didn’t help that I never learnt how much older than Peyton he was, which made me also too uncomfortable and nervous to enjoy the romance to begin with. It was mentioned a lot that Peyton was the youngest at seventeen and that the oldest were about 25 years old, but I didn’t know where in that age range Beasey fell. It was impossible for me to even consider rooting for the romance as long as that uncertainty prevailed.
Overall, I really liked the discussions around friendship in this book, that was definitely a highlight for me. It was also engaging and at parts hopeful and inspiring (if you didn’t look at it through a too realistic lens). However, the characters were a bit too underdeveloped and the plot could’ve done well with slowing down a little. And the romance really wasn’t necessary and undermined the message of the story in my opinion.
I didn't know what to expect going into this book, because I'd never heard of it before. It was some random book I'd found at the library when I was in one of my rare "What if I tried reading books in German again?" phases, though I did know the author beforehand. And while there were certain things I didn't like, overall, it was a pleasant surprise!
The story had two timelines. In timeline one, the present, Peyton had very spontaneously decided to temporarily leave her life in England and fly to Canada. She’d dropped out of school, stole her dad’s credit card, and wanted to leave the uncertainty and sadness of her life behind. While in Canada, she met new people, ones that taught her what real friendship (and also romance) looked like.
In timeline two, the past, Peyton explained what exactly had happened to make her take that drastic step of literally fleeing halfway across the globe.
What surprised me the most was how little I disliked this way of storytelling. Usually, I don’t like it when books are split into present and past, because I always end up not caring much about the chapters set in the past and find myself wanting to skim-read. That desire was missing here. While it was very easy to figure out what exactly happened from a certain point on even before it was truly revealed, I still didn’t find the past chapters pointless. They added a depth to it that I think wouldn’t have been there quite as much if there’d only been a focus on the present, and made me a lot more understanding towards Peyton’s actions and decisions.
Peyton as a character wasn’t technically someone I cared about deeply, but I do think that our shared experiences as lonely, friendless teenagers resulted in me not being bothered by her actions as much as other people might be. Don’t get me wrong - she did a lot of things that made me roll my eyes, like fleeing to Canada in October without so much as a coat and then being surprised by it. She was also naive to a degree that should’ve been impossible with her past experience. But she was also incredibly, painfully relatable.
The discussions Barnard created about friendship and about how far people would go to have them, even if they had to completely lose themselves in the process, was my absolute favourite thing about this book. Basically, Peyton had gotten bullied relentlessly for years at her old school, so when she started over at a new one, she was determined to not be alone anymore and to find connections with her peers. She ended up befriending a group of people that wasn’t good for her and that she barely even liked half of the time - but she was so terrified of being alone and being a victim again that she ignored all the red flags and did things she wasn’t proud of.
The contemplation that Peyton had about friendships made me very emotional. I’ve never had friends, especially not ones that I’d trust and that I was close with, so the desperation and loneliness she felt hit me deep in my core. To be honest, it almost made me depressed, because it made me yearn for it so hard I wanted to cry . If I’d read this as a teen, I probably would’ve felt hopeful and maybe bittersweet about the future; but as an adult in their late twenties, that was impossible.
Regardless of those sad feelings it conjured up in me, I loved the way Barnard talked about Peyton’s desire to have friends - even if those friends weren’t good for her. That’s what I meant when I said that my experience with loneliness and lack of friends made me understand her better - because despite the fact that as an adult, it is very easy to say that she acted stupid and should’ve known better and questioned her friends more, I just know in my heart that I would’ve done the exact same thing as her if I’d been in her situation as a teenager. I would’ve immediately given my true self up if it meant I could have friends to hang out with.
Plot-wise, I do think that logic was thrown out the window at times. Realistically, Peyton probably wouldn’t have even been allowed to enter Canada, or get a room in a youth hostel without a parent. Admittedly, I wasn’t quite all too aware of that and have only learnt about it from other reviews - I’ve only gone to another country alone once in my life when I was underage, and nobody there even asked what my intentions were -, but now I can’t unsee it and it bothers me.
On top of that, Barnard barely acknowledged how much worse it could’ve gone for Peyton. A 17-year-old teenager, going to another country without so much as a plan, could’ve easily fallen into the wrong hands. That’s what I meant when I said Peyton was naive - she became friends with pretty much the first people she met in the hotel and didn’t even question their intentions. I know that the atmosphere in youth hostels is rather laid-back and friendships are forged more easily, but I would’ve appreciated an acknowledgement of the potential danger. Without that, a teenager might pick up this book and think this is the greatest idea ever, without thinking about the negatives.
To be honest, I feel like this book offers very differing reading experience depending on where in your life you are. As a teenager, it’s inspiring and might awaken wanderlust. As an adult, you are way more reserved - I actually found myself on Peyton’s mum’s side at times, which was a very odd feeling to be having.
The story was also a bit rushed. You didn’t really get to experience the road trip too much and see the characters become close to each other. Before you could even blink, everyone was friends and two weeks had passed. At most, Peyton would talk about the places they’d seen, but it was always a bit on the outside; you were told about their adventures more than you were shown them. It definitely could’ve benefited from slowing down and taking the time to actually have the reader join the trip.
That too-fast pace also made the side characters a bit underdeveloped, which was something about the novel I didn’t like. Peyton met six people in Canada that she went on a road trip with, and some of them were barely explored at all. Especially these two guys named Lars and Stefan felt more like they were just thrown in there to have more people; I didn’t even realise that they were a couple until I was quite some way into the story, and I am usually quite attuned to queerness. So when Peyton talked about how close she was to the others and how much these friendships meant to her, it didn’t feel authentic to me.
Personally, I also don’t think there should’ve been a romance, because it undermined the message of the book a bit. Because at the end of the story, Peyton was closest to her love interest Beasey, and she took it way harder to be leaving him behind than any of the other five, and that made it seem like friendship is way less important than romantic love. The impact of the story would’ve been much bigger if everything had stayed platonic.
It didn’t help that Beasey wasn’t an exception to the rule of underdevelopment. I never really understood why he and Peyton even fell in love with each other. At first, he didn’t even register as a potential love interest - partly because I didn’t go into this book expecting a romance, and partly because I thought for a while that he and Khalil , his best friend, were a couple (which made the fact that I didn’t recognise the actual queer couple kind of hilarious). Even later, when Peyton talked about how he was her best friend, insinuating that she was much closer to him than any of the others, I didn’t understand where that came from. Because while he might have been mentioned more often than the others, I didn’t see the deeper friendship/budding romance that he had with Peyton.
It didn’t help that I never learnt how much older than Peyton he was, which made me also too uncomfortable and nervous to enjoy the romance to begin with. It was mentioned a lot that Peyton was the youngest at seventeen and that the oldest were about 25 years old, but I didn’t know where in that age range Beasey fell. It was impossible for me to even consider rooting for the romance as long as that uncertainty prevailed.
Overall, I really liked the discussions around friendship in this book, that was definitely a highlight for me. It was also engaging and at parts hopeful and inspiring (if you didn’t look at it through a too realistic lens). However, the characters were a bit too underdeveloped and the plot could’ve done well with slowing down a little. And the romance really wasn’t necessary and undermined the message of the story in my opinion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Alcohol, Bullying, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Toxic relationship
Minor: Death, Sexual content, and Car accident
Also CW for drug overdosenatalie_davies's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Not my favourite by Sara Barnard... (That title goes to A Quiet Kind Of Thunder) but this was still one of the more engaging YA books I've read recently. Sara Barnard is one of my favourite UK YA writers in general
Destination Anywhere gave me another solid read. It tackled some really important subjects like peer pressure, drugs, consent and just what people would do for a sense of belonging.
The reason I rated it quite as low as I did was the inclusion of Illustrations... They just felt a bit juvenile for the topics covered, although I guess you could say that they showed the gap between the main character and the world that she was inhabiting. Still, it was a bit jarring whenever the darker themes and charcoal drawings nestled together, and that bought me out of it sometimes. I'd still recommend it though.
Destination Anywhere gave me another solid read. It tackled some really important subjects like peer pressure, drugs, consent and just what people would do for a sense of belonging.
The reason I rated it quite as low as I did was the inclusion of Illustrations... They just felt a bit juvenile for the topics covered, although I guess you could say that they showed the gap between the main character and the world that she was inhabiting. Still, it was a bit jarring whenever the darker themes and charcoal drawings nestled together, and that bought me out of it sometimes. I'd still recommend it though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
lucys_library's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use and Alcohol
lucy33's review
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Bullying, Alcohol, and Drug use
Minor: Homophobia
alaskayoung1734's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Very emotional book about finding yourself and your true friends.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Bullying, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Car accident
bookmarked642's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I love Sara Barnard's writing so had no doubt I would enjoy this to some degree. However, it's not my usual style; yes, I love YA, and I love travel, but I usually like a bit more of a mystery or thriller aspect to my books. I don't particularly like romance, and this does have some aspects of romance in it, but is not centred around it which I definitely appreciated.
First of all, I have to say I related to Peyton in a few ways. No, I never experienced exactly what she did (I'll avoid spoilers, but it was certainly dramatic). But I get the feeling of needing to run away, to start over. I also understand her struggle of finding friends, of wanting to fit in and be liked; it's really quite sad how it all backfired on her. And of course, no 17-year-old should really drop out of school and run away from home, but I'm sure a lot of us had times when we were tempted, right?
The journey that Peyton undertakes is quite wonderful. It made me want to travel more myself. At times, Peyton did get emotional and overwhelmed, and I don't blame her. It wasn't a holiday. She had literally run away. But she managed to enjoy herself, meet some wonderful people, and even patch things up with her family who were halfway around the world from her. (Plus, meeting some family that's not so far away, for the very first time.)
It was a pretty feel-good book overall, despite the rather emotional and traumatic backstory. Peyton was certainly a flawed character, as every single one of us is. That made it so much easier to like her and relate to her. It was really easy to read and just enjoyable. 5 stars, though I wouldn't quite put it on my 'favourites' list.
First of all, I have to say I related to Peyton in a few ways. No, I never experienced exactly what she did (I'll avoid spoilers, but it was certainly dramatic). But I get the feeling of needing to run away, to start over. I also understand her struggle of finding friends, of wanting to fit in and be liked; it's really quite sad how it all backfired on her. And of course, no 17-year-old should really drop out of school and run away from home, but I'm sure a lot of us had times when we were tempted, right?
The journey that Peyton undertakes is quite wonderful. It made me want to travel more myself. At times, Peyton did get emotional and overwhelmed, and I don't blame her. It wasn't a holiday. She had literally run away. But she managed to enjoy herself, meet some wonderful people, and even patch things up with her family who were halfway around the world from her. (Plus, meeting some family that's not so far away, for the very first time.)
It was a pretty feel-good book overall, despite the rather emotional and traumatic backstory. Peyton was certainly a flawed character, as every single one of us is. That made it so much easier to like her and relate to her. It was really easy to read and just enjoyable. 5 stars, though I wouldn't quite put it on my 'favourites' list.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use and Alcohol
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